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Thursday, January 7, 2016

Encontro com Lampião is a deep rarity, delivered with tremendous bravado by Zé Gonzaga. This LP is particularly rare. Mine is in such bad condition that only the first song plays. This is lucky, because it may be the finest track on the LP. Encontro com Lampião refers to Lampião, the bandit from Northeastern Brazil who was beheaded by authorities in 1938. Luiz Gonzaga (*Who I now know, thanks to Austin's Vinyl, was the brother of Zé) modeled his stage persona based on Lampião's image, which included the distinctive half-moon cowboy hats and rugged outfits. This became the most recognizable fashion for baião, and later forró, that some performers still pay homage to today.

About ForróLPGringo

Welcome to Forró LP Gringo. Forró is a banner term covering a variety of northeastern Brazilian rhythms and styles, including Baião, Côco, Rojão, Xaxado, Xote and Arrasta-Pé. Forró is a massive popular music genre in Brazil. It may also be the least known and exported Brazilian music. This blog was created to share northeastern Brazilian music and provide some context for the releases. As my collection has grown, my focus has shifted from cherry-picking the best tracks from long out-of-print LPs to preserving great music that has never been reissued.